The Gambit
A Reflection on the War of the Coalition, by New Reverie Aug 13, 2008 I. Introduction We have finally reached a watershed moment in time not seen since the Unjust War was fought almost a year ago. When the Unjust War broke out I penned a topic called UJP Treatise. I am bringing up this past work not because I think I was wrong about the need to fight the alliances leading the UJP. I bring this up because the promises that needed to be kept by the victors were never fulfilled. I have no regret as to the absence of GOONS, \m/, and others. As alliances they bullied others, they cheapened the game, and they destroyed politics. I hoped that these practices would die with these alliances, however many of those who fought for this great cause have wandered down the same path. Emboldened by victory and power these alliances have placed them selves on a pedestal high above the masses which they look down upon with malice and contempt. The time that has passed since the end of the unjust war represents nothing more than a squandered opportunity. The alliances of power instead of spreading the fires of freedom, politics, and justice instead have chosen to burn down the world. The events of the past few days have filled me with sorrow. Almost nothing of the good that once was this world has escaped the fires of war and oppression. With little left to do, a move must be made. A gambit. Gambit-noun 1.Chess. an opening in which a player seeks to obtain some advantage by sacrificing a pawn or piece. “Many who have visited me in Washington in the past few months may have been surprised when I have told them that personally and because of my own daily contacts with all manner of difficult situations I am more concerned and less cheerful about international world conditions than about our immediate domestic prospects. I say this to you not as a confirmed pessimist but as one who still hopes that envy, hatred and malice among Nations have reached their peak and will be succeeded by a new tide of peace and good-will. We are not isolationists except in so far as we seek to isolate ourselves completely from war. Yet we must remember that so long as war exists on earth there will be some danger that even the Nation which most ardently desires peace may be drawn into war. I have seen war. I have seen war on land and sea. I have seen blood running from the wounded. I have seen men coughing out their gassed lungs. I have seen the dead in the mud. I have seen cities destroyed. I have seen two hundred limping exhausted men come out of line-the survivors of a regiment of one thousand that went forward forty-eight hours before. I have seen children starving. I have seen the agony of mothers and wives. I hate war. I wish I could keep war from all Nations; but that is beyond my power. I can at least make certain that no act of the United States helps to produce or to promote war. I can at least make clear that the conscience of America revolts against war and that any Nation which provokes war forfeits the sympathy of the people of the United States. Many causes produce war. There are ancient hatreds, turbulent frontiers, the "legacy of old forgotten, far-off things, and battles long ago." There are new-born fanaticisms. Convictions on the part of certain peoples that they have become the unique depositories of ultimate truth and right.” -Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Chautauqua, New York (14 August 1936) II. A Sacrifice for Hope A gambit is different from most strategies. It involves sacrifice to gain an advantage. Like all sacrifice it also does not guarantee victory. A gambit however is a play of hope not desperation. The alliances that have gathered together and continue to gather in the coming days do so for hope. Pieces will be sacrificed in what is now the greatest effort the world has ever undertaken to right itself. The forces amassed against this hope represent some of the most despotic regimes that this world has ever seen. Their leadership sitting high atop thrones forged of bone and skin, their landscape watered daily with the blood of innocents. Leaders who have been twisted into shapes no longer recognizable as men and as such are worshipped by their hundreds of followers as gods. And so this battle for the fate of our world will play out, sword against horn and shield against hoof. But among the red glowing eyes of the enemy, I still see the empty gaze of those who still cling to a memory of what it was once to be men. I say to these creatures, which are not yet fully transformed, that it is not yet too late. Hope exists just beyond the bounds of the trail you trod. You are beset on all sides by it. Hope was once a lush forest of this world. A wide path of injustice was then one day carved through it, felling many trees. Later a highway, both wider and longer, cleared much more away in its construction. Now fires burn throughout, clearing room for cities of injustice, havens for the corrupt, the maniacal, and the masochistic. But no matter how much land is cleared, be it for a path, a highway, or a metropolis; forests of hope still remain. And if the cities ever burn to the ground, their ash will fertilize the new fruits of hope. As you busily travel from building to building, from each terrible and cruel spire filled with those who seek to build a world of injustice over a forest of hope, think about your next move. Whether the world you seek lies in the sewage of the Unjust City, or the meadows in the forest of hope. Hope requires a sacrifice. Hope requires a gambit. III. Positioning the Pieces Chess is not a game that is won by a single move. Pieces have to be positioned and sacrificed. Gambits have to be made. The kings that desire injustice to prevail have placed their pieces through time and space. The desires of these monsters turned gods is to declare checkmate against hope. Their pawns are not carved out of stone but out of nations. Spells have been cast to keep them frozen by fear; Gag orders given to prevent dissent, severe surrender terms given to those that they attack, the ideal that salvation comes through submission. The game they play is a perversion. Their pieces, frozen into the hardest of rock, eyes shifting wildly with fear and regret, but body only articulating on command now move against free men, their skin is soft flesh, their eyes hopeful. The hope that they see is not for victory, because no victory is to be had when flesh faces stone. The hope is that their blood will run so deep that all the pieces of this game are colored red. That the stone faces of enemies will look at each other and no longer see a difference in the pawn standing across from them. Remember this image after you leave the battlefield and wash yourself clean. Look into your heart and decide what it is you are fighting for. This war, global and vast began because of a fair exchange of technology. The leadership that perpetuate it have been consumed by greed and lust for power. All deadly sins have been aired for this conflict by those that call themselves a leader. Yes you may be on the victorious end, but what are you victorious over? Your achievements perpetuate the philosophy that is the scourge of our world. Might Makes Right. You are the instrument of this plague, a flea on the back of a rat. IV. The Gambit Angels and demons share the battlefield today. Men scurry at their feet, swords drawn and sides chosen. A gambit requires a sacrifice. Yet there is no alter wide or strong enough to hold the flesh that will be given up over the coming days. Piles will sit, stinking and rotting. Yes there will be a sacrifice, its stink will fill your nostrils and soak into every corner of this game. It will not wash clean, blood will stain this world red, filling our rivers and oceans like so much apocalyptic prophecy. Even now the scent is almost unbearable. The smell of might makes right, of barbarism, has driven many great names from our world. The question that remains is what advantage is sought. The goal is clear, the return of sanity, freedom, and politics. But what advantage can be leveraged that from the sacrifice being made? What life will rise from the coming death like a phoenix from ashes? The answer once again is hope. But more than hope, action inspired by hope. Those on the battlefield have eaten from the same tables, shared treaties, called each other comrades, brothers, and sisters. They now move to slit the throats of those who only months ago may have been allies or still are. The hope I have for this world rests with the mighty. I and many others have come to painful terms to know that I will likely never hold a significant amount of power. I will never be mighty. But there are those that do and in our world might does indeed make right. But I have this parting hope, that after your brothers and sisters are sacrificed and your friends are sold into slavery, that Might Does Right. Think about it, repeat it. Hope. There are powers that are not yet engaged in this conflict. Powers that have more might than all others combined. I have long questioned whether these powers were in the hands of angels or demons. I hope they are in the hands of men, men who will see all the pieces, stained red and put an end to the madness. To stand up against such an entrenched tradition will take courage and sacrifice. It will take strong movement, strong leadership and strong guidance for the entire world. But for our savior to come, a sacrifice must be made. This is our gambit. Category:New Reverie